RD: Stoke Me a Clipper
Overview Daredevil pilot Ace Rimmer, fatally wounded after rescuing Princess Bonjela, travels from his own dimension into the dimension where Starbug is cruising. His intention is to try and bring out courage in the cowardly version of himself aboard Starbug, and then hopefully recruit Arnold Rimmer as his replacement, so that after his death another Rimmer will carry on the legacy of the interstellar space hero. Summary Ace Rimmer, Rimmer's better looking heroic alternate being, from "Dimension Jump" and "Emohawk: Polymorph II" makes a rescue attempt on a Nazi captured princess. Although he succeeds in rescuing her, Ace takes a fatal bullet hit. Meanwhile on Starbug, Lister is tired of taking cold showers, nearly using all the water supplies in the process, so he goes into the artificial reality machine with his book of cheats. He challenges the King's best knight so he can win the honour of spending a day and a night with the Queen of Camelot. Using his cheat codes he defeats the knight, claims his prize and with one last cheat the Queen's chastity belt falls freely to the ground, this all to his aid Kryten's disgust. Ace transports into their dimension and reveals that he is dying and wants Rimmer to replace him as Ace. He also tells Rimmer of the Ace secret — the fact that alternate versions of Rimmer from countless dimensions have all taken the reins to be Ace. Now Ace must train Rimmer to succeed him and keep the legend going. After encouragement from Lister (or rather taunts that Rimmer is incapable of anything brave or heroic in a bit of reverse psychology), Rimmer decides to accept the offer and begins his training. With the help of Lister, Cat and Kryten, Rimmer succeeds with his training, finally being fully convinced when Lister shows him the graves of the thousands of other Rimmers who had come before him. When Ace dies, he dons Ace's outfit and says his goodbye to the crew before leaving Starbug, Notes *Chris Barrie had decided to leave the series at this point, and had committed to four more episodes, but was written out in the second episode anyway, allowing more time to develop Kochanski's character, who would be arriving in the next episode. This episode marks final 'real' appearance of the original Rimmer hologram in the series, with his other appearances taking the forms of flashbacks and dream sequences. Rimmer is shown as a hologram again in Back to Earth, though it is never clearly referenced whether or not he has returned or is another hologram program (which happens to share some of his memories). . *In a deleted scene, the Ace that was in this episode is from a universe where he stole the time drive and left the others for dead (implying that the divergent point occurred during "Out of Time"), being recruited when he was trapped in Napoleonic times. *The actor who played Colonel Voorhees also played General Flockenstuffen in 'Allo 'Allo! *It is unclear whether or not, through the use of time travel, Ace's rescue attempt happened in a dimension during the Second World War period or another time period where German Nazis attempt to take control (It is more likely that it happened in a dimension where it is World War II, some universes are more ahead of others). *This was the first time Ace Rimmer was mentioned since Rob Grant left, which is interesting given that Ace Rimmer appears in Grant's personal sequel to the novel Better Than Life called Backwards (though largely based on "Dimension Jump". Doug Naylor's sequel, Last Human, instead focus on GELFs. The return of Ace, and probably thus the original Rimmer hologram, was one of the considered endings for Series VIII. Noteworthy Dialogue *'Ace:' Princess Bonjela? Ace Rimmer. There'll be time for explanations later and, hopefully, some sex. *'Ace:' You can't judge a book by its cover. :Lister: And you can't confuse Rimmer with a book. For a start, a book's got a spine. *(In a tent with the Queen of Camelot) :Lister: Anyone got any whipped cream? Background Information Going solo for Series VII had worried Doug Naylor. To help him with the writing duties he hired a small group of writers. Paul Alexander, a Jasper Carrott writing regular and a cowriter with him on The Ten Percenters, was the first one to help out. This was a new situation to Naylor who had previously had control over every script. He would however re-write and edit each script to make them fit into the Red Dwarf creative pedigree. This episode featured a large number of famous guest actors. Scottish-born Hollywood movie veteran Brian Cox played the Medieval English King. British comedy actress Sarah Alexander portrayed the French Queen. English actor Ken Morley portrayed the German commander Captain Voorhese. British television actress Alison Senior portrayed Princess Bonjela. A German television comedy duo, Kai Maurer and Stephan Grothgar, portrayed the Wehrmacht soldiers who get hit on the head by the crocodile. Andy Gell also appeared as a soldier. Guest Stars *Brian Cox as the Medieval English King. *Sarah Alexander as the French Queen. *Ken Morley as the German commander Captain Voorhese. *Alison Senior as Princess Bonjela. *Kai Maurer as a Wehrmacht soldier. *Stephan Grothgar as a Wehrmacht soldier. *Andy Gell as a Wehrmacht soldier. References *Ace Rimmer *''Wildfire'' Category:Series VII Episodes Category:Episodes